I have yet to actually heat transfer my designs on the shirt, but I found that you need special paper to print on (inkjet printers work best, so I'm told). You need a different paper depending if you are printing on dark shirts or light shirts. I found a package with both at my local Michael's. I used a 50% coupon that was emailed me to get the paper for about $7.50. I ordered my designs from Etsy, so can't help there.

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Thanks for responding! I definitely know about the the special paper that’s needed. What brought this on was because a friend of mine needed my printer to print out her designs for a trip her family was taking so I thought “hmm, I wonder if I can save myself some money and do it this way” lol. I just don’t want my images to be blurry or pixelated so I wasn’t sure if there was a special software that needed to be used to make the graphics. Do you know if they need to be a special file type?

One of our designs turned out great on the paper the other design wasn't as sharp as I'd hoped. The good design was on paper for light shirts and the other design was dark shirts so I'm not sure if it was the paper or not. I bought the designs from etsy so not sure if a special file is needed but I don't think so. My package of paper had instructions on how to make your own design

I know this is past your trip, however, for future help, Amy who designs on here as well, sells awesome
transfer sheets and they can be used on any color tee shirt and they always turn out perfect.
She sends instructions with the transfers. I use them for any shirt I make and I have made many.